To Really Quit Facebook, Know The Difference Between “Deactivate” And “Delete”
April 13th, 2008
A while back I declared my intent to quit Facebook. I wanted to delete my account, which in my mind means erase all my personal information uploaded to Facebook and close the account.
It turns out what I did was not that. I merely “deactivated” my account. This option closes your account but retains all your data so you can restore it at a later date.
Deactivate Your Facebook Account
The steps to “deactivate” an account are as follows, go to account, settings, and there is a screen for “deactivate”. Click it and you’ll see this screen where you click the “deactivate” button.
Delete Your Facebook Account
If you want to “delete” your account: Click on “help” (lower right corner), find the FAQ for “I want to delete my account”.
Click “this form” and you’ll get a check box to send a request email to customer support to delete your account.
You’ll be contacted in a few days via email to confirm that your account has been deleted.
Conclusion: There’s A Difference Between “Deactivate” And “Delete” And Facebook Wants You To Do The Former
While the process described above sounds reasonably straightforward, think about it a bit further:
- There is no link from the “deactivate” account process to the “delete” process. But there is a link from the “delete” process to the “deactivate” one.
- The “deactivate” process is linked from the upper right corner under accounts while “delete” is in the help / FAQ section in the lower right corner.
- “deactivate” requires the click of one button while “delete” requires more clicks and an email to customer service.
I feel the processes are intentionally separated and subtly misleading. A few weeks ago, I “deactivated” my account and did not “delete.” I only realized my mistake when a blog reader told me he didn’t find the deletion process very difficult, and had received an email from customer support indicating his account was deleted. I got no such email, alerting me to the fact that “deactivation” is different from “deletion.” I felt pretty dumb when I realized this. I then logged in with my old user name and password (my account was still there). I then did the correct “delete” process and took the screenshots above.
Part of this complaint is my fault. I didn’t think there was a difference between “deactivate” and “delete” so when I found the “deactivate” option I didn’t feel a need to look further for a “delete” option.
But why should the onus be on me to know the difference? Why does Facebook assume data retention is in the best interest of the user?
No site wants users to quit their service. But I feel there is a deliberate intent to obscure the process of account deletion and goad users toward “deactivation.” Facebook had to be pressured to include the deletion option because of user outrage and the difficulty in quitting from Facebook, as they had to be pressured for user “opt out” of Beacon.
Facebook makes the argument that many users experience “Facebook regret” and contact them later to reactive their shuttered account. I don’t buy it. Based on past behavior, Facebook has a history of putting advertisers and revenue over their users, and I don’t think this is any different.
The end result is my experience deactivating / quitting Facebook left me even more frustrated with the service – and reconfirmed that in my case, quitting was the right thing to do.
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Man, I wish there was a better service for connecting to people other than Facebook – here's hoping OpenSocial becomes better and more widely adopted.
I'd quit Facebook, otherwise.
Thanks for the heads-up on the deletion/deactivation, I'll point people here whenever I hear that someone wants to delete their account.
If you want a step-by-step guide on deactivating your facebook account or deleting it, go to http://antisocial.nectareen.com/?p=15 and follow it. Well worth your time.
I do agree there is an opportunity for a competitor. Facebook is certainly the epitome of a walled garden if ever there was one.
hmm. that's funny, you were so clear (in your original facebook quitting blog) that my info could get retained, that when I quit facebook, I requested full deletion with an email. My experience wasn't the same as our friend's. I in fact got questioned on my decision (was this based on that my account had so much data and his had less?). I wrote an email that made it very clear blah, blah blah AND …. “I also resent that you make it so difficult to completely delete your account and all my private info. Remove every bit of info you have on me please”
to this I got a response explaining how deactivating is such a nicer option, didn't I really just want to deactivate? Could I have been any more clear that NO that is not what I wanted.
Here's a portion of my testy response:
“I haven't regretted leaving mySpace! (I bet that hurt the customer service guy)
Delete it completely. That is what my email said.”
Wow, that is another angle – so you had a little bit of a content retention attempt via emal. That's too bad. I think we're finally free though!
@ Ruth: thanks for the advices. First i tried to delete my account, but it didn't work out, so after your help i managed to do it properly. Thanks best wishes from berlin/GER
[...] Microsoft Office, and Windows Media Player. I won’t buy an XBox. I hardly use Yahoo!. And I don’t use Facebook – I recently quit and deleted my account. Life goes [...]
Thanks a lot, I just deactivated my account, then thought: there's probably more to this, since I can reactivate it. So I googled REALLY deactivate facebook account, and luckily found this explanation, witch I followed. Now though the format of the website has changed, and the delete option is even HARDER to delete. I had to search deleting, and humourously enough, it was the top searched thing. Then “do you want to delete your face book account” was found only under some irrelevant superficial heading as some reason why you might. Bloodyy dumb, but now it's done, I just have to wait 14 days.
Itried to delete my account on facebook,tried for 2 hours,can't find delete. i copied your page & printed it .
Hello,
I am making a facebook for the company I work for. I orginally just made a regular facebook page, but later realized that I need to make a business page for them. I tried to deactivate the account so that I could use the same email for the business account. Facebook will not let me do this because the email was used on the original account that I have deactivated.
Any thoughts???
I actually like that you have both options. I think that “delete” should require multiple steps, to prevent people from accidentally erasing a lot of information unless they're absolutely sure. It's kind of like the “trash” or “recycle bin” on your computer. Of course, I'm sure most of you disagree with me. But what's clear is that if you really want to delete everything, it's not exactly difficult and you don't have to write them to start the process.
Finally, those bemoaning the lack of competition: Facebook does have competition. MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, are just some of them. And Facebook is more popular for many reasons, one of which is its privacy and security. Some people may still be unsatisfied, but the reality is that Facebook has done better at these things than the runners-up. That said, it's your choice not to be on Facebook. I'm just not sure others are going to do a better job anytime soon.
FB isn't for me – I'm not interested in 'networking' and I'm not looking for internet 'friends' in a big way, so I recently deactivated my account. You post is most helpful and thanks for drawing my attention to the 'delete' option – I may exercise this, but haven't quite made up my mind.
will someone please help me permanently delete my facebook account i woud really appreacite it
[...] Quit Facebook. [...]
this is not permanent. but doing this will work i think :/
http://fancythought.blogspot.com/2010/03/deactivate-your-facebook-account.html
i always thought the difference is clear i would rather deactivate and know my pics and friends r there shuld i choose to return…if u read the process it explains the difference.. either way tho ppl cant see or write to you so why care if u may eventually return or not?its the same point its a matter of personal permanence….nothing to go against facebook for..its more of a personal preferance and lack of reading on your way out
[...] I am obsessive about my privacy on Facebook, but I can’t delete or deactivate (there’s a difference) my account. I use it for marketing my own brand as well as my clients and, to be honest, it has [...]
this method worked for me
http://fancythought.blogspot.com/2010/05/deactivate-facebook-permanently.html
No one seems to realise the amount of personal information being quietly stored about everyone. Its time to get the fuck off the grid. This is only the beginning
Thanks for the info, I just deactivated my account then I read this and now I have deleted FINALY. I’ve wanted to do that for ages.
Thanks for the tipoff